Tiva tales

Water Fight

The sun streams through the trees, bouncing off the dried up mud trail in diagonal lines. If this were any other situation Ziva would think it was beautiful - she had always admired the nature back home in Israel but currently she is tired and over heated. 

It's been over an hour since they received the call at the Navy Yard - an anonymous tip saying Lieutenant Jones had been sighted at the national park a few miles away. Technically the case had been solved and closed for a month but they never had been able to track Jones when they'd wanted to speak to him so when Gibbs heard about the info he ignored Vance's directions to leave it be and sent Tony and Ziva on a wild goose chase. 

"Tony hurry up, we must be nearly there by now." Ziva calls over her shoulder.

He's stood a few paces behind her, leaning forward and panting. "I'm taking a break Zeevah." He manages to get out in between breaths. Even when he was younger he had preferred staying away from anything that involved the words mountain and climbing ; unfortunately (despite his protests) Gibbs had insisted that he needed Mcgee to track Jones' cell phone from the Navy Yard and Tony would be the one trekking through the park chasing ghosts.

Ziva looks up to see how much of the trail is visible ahead and decides to continue on when suddenly she loses her footing and stumbles back. The heat is melting her brain so her usual instincts don't kick in and her lazy limbs do nothing to attempt to regain balance. "Shit." She mutters as Tony throws his arms out to catch her and break the fall. 

When they find Jones she isn't going to hold back with her interrogation techniques, that much is for certain.

She thanks God it was at least only Tony she fell on and begins pushing herself back up, but as her boot makes contact with the solid ground her head starts to spin and her knees give way. This time, unprepared for the impact Tony lets out a winded grunt when she falls back on him. "Are you okay Ziva." He asks after a second, his voice thick with concern.

"I'm just overheated." Ziva retorts. It looks like she has become more acclimatised to the American weather that she'd realised and her tolerance for scorching hot summer days has diminished. If her head would just stop spinning she could pick herself up, but her eye lids are starting to droop and it feels as though she's in a dream. 

...

Ziva wakes with a violent start as something cold splashes her face. As the world slowly comes back into focus she sees Tony is stood in front of her wielding a water bottle, he grins when he sees her open her eyes. "Welcome back." He chirps. Ugh. Ziva thinks, if Jones was here we're never going to find him now. Something rough is running along her back and she realises she's propped up against a tree in the shade. Tony must have manoeuvred her over here whilst she was out. 

"We need to keep going." She points out, preparing to actually stand this time but Tony manages to be one step ahead of her. 

"Oh no." He shakes his head and puts his arm out to stop her. "You are staying put till you've cooled down and rehydrated."

Ziva appreciates the concern but resents him thinking he needs to be the one to offer it. In case it wasn't clear enough to him already she was perfectly capable of looking after herself in difficult situations. It must just be because it's been so long since she's done any strenuous field work that her body is letting her down. 

Tony is still staring at her with that charming smile and those eyes that mesmerise her. 

"You might want to let your t-shirt dry before we continue anyway." He points at her white vest top, Ziva looks down and realises it has gone see through. She rolls her eyes. "Well, you could take it off and leave it in the sun whilst we continue I suppose." Tony chuckles. With that she glares at him and warns that she has her knife. 

 "You will only see me without my clothes if I have an extra good reason to take them off." She states and flashes him a sarcastic, tilted head smile. It takes Tony less than thirty seconds to decide what he wants to do, he lunges forward, water bottle in hand and dumps the remaining contents over her head. 

"TONY." She shrieks, reaching for the rucksack discarded next to her. As quickly as she can she unzips it and pulls out her water bottle. Unscrewing it and squeezing it towards him causing a fountain of water to soak his front. Shaking with laughter he throws his head back and runs up to her, reaching into her bag and stealing the spare bottle. He splashes it over her head in sharp bursts, it's so cooling all Ziva can do is sit there and stare at him whilst they both giggle like school children. 

When the bottle is empty Tony slumps down next to her and lets her rest her head on his shoulder. 

"I'm telling Gibbs you let Jones get away." He teases.